Man Receives 25 Years In Nanny's Murder

December 01, 2001|By CHRISTOPHER KEATING; Courant Staff Writer

NEW HAVEN — After being compared to the devil by the victim's family, a British engineer was sentenced to serve 25 years in prison Friday for murdering his children's nanny -- his lover -- in a jealous rage.

David Paul Taylor asked the family of Milena ``Milly'' Pitkova for forgiveness -- after admitting in court that he killed her in their Madison home when she said that she was leaving him for another man.

``There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about the terrible thing that I did to Milly,'' Taylor told the judge. ``I will regret this for the rest of my life. I've never been a violent person. I wish I could change things, but I cannot. ... If there was anything I could do for Milly's family, I wish they would tell me.''

Wearing a prison jumpsuit and a leg chain, Taylor, a British national, attempted to explain his behavior on the night in March 1999 when he killed the live-in nanny who had become his lover.

``In a fit of anger, my mind snapped,'' Taylor said. ``Before I realized what I had done, I found myself with my hands around her neck.''

The prosecution says that Taylor tried to strangle Pitkova and hit her on the head with a hammer several times while his children slept upstairs. He pleaded guilty to murder two months ago in a compromise agreement for a 25-year sentence, rather than facing a maximum of 60 years if he had been found guilty at a trial.

Pitkova, 22, had decided to leave Taylor, then 43, in order to be with her new boyfriend, Mark Miller of Guilford.

Standing less than five feet from Taylor in the courtroom, Miller spoke bitterly during the sentencing about Pitkova's death.

``She did nothing but honor and respect [Taylor] up until the last moments of her life,'' Miller said during an emotional speech. ``Not only did he kill Milena, but he has totally wiped out her family and mine.''

Turning to Taylor, Miller said that Taylor will no longer be able to ``torture'' his two children, a 14-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl.

``He won't be able to bully his son and pick on him,'' Miller said to Taylor. ``You're going to be picked on now. You're going to be someone's nanny. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.''

Pitkova's mother, Anna, traveled with other family members from the former Czechoslovakia, where Milena had lived with the family before moving to England and then to America as the nanny for Taylor's family. Milena worked for Taylor for about three years, starting at age 19.

``When Millie and David went to the United States, we were afraid for her,'' Anna Pitkova said through an interpreter. ``They argued often. She wanted to come home. I asked Millie to leave David, but she did not want to leave the children.''

Anna Pitkova said that Taylor had planned her daughter's death and lured her to his rental house in Madison on that final night.

``David Taylor used his children to contact Milly so she would come over his house one last time,'' Pitkova said. ``She didn't realize these were the last hours of her life.''

Turning to Taylor, Pitkova said, ``You're not a person. You're like the devil. God forgive me for saying these words. Twenty-five years? What's 25 years for somebody's life? It's not very much for killing our daughter, our sister.''

Before the guilty plea, Taylor's attorneys had planned to present a defense of ``extreme emotional disturbance'' because Taylor's world was crumbling around him at the time of the killing. A divorced single father who worked as an electrical engineer at Thermatool Corp. in East Haven, Taylor had come to rely heavily on Pitkova to care for his children. In addition to losing his nanny, Taylor was also losing his lover.

Although defense attorneys said the murder was completely out of character for Taylor, court papers showed that the prosecution was prepared to show that Taylor had burned the clothes of his former wife when they were in the process of divorce.

After learning about the nanny's death, Taylor's former wife, Susan Hollins, said that Taylor ``had threatened to kill her and that she was glad she got out of the marriage when she did or otherwise she might have been the victim,'' said papers filed by prosecutor Gary W. Nicholson.

The case of the nanny's death has generated headlines in the London tabloids because Taylor is a British citizen.

Before imposing the agreed-upon minimum sentence, Judge Roland D. Fasano said that the plea agreement had helped avoid ``an extensive, publicity-laden trial'' that would have forced the Pitkova family to re-live the crime.

``This is a simply horrendous situation,'' Fasano said. ``It's the ultimate mindless act of vengeance. It's just a monstrous event.''

Sending Taylor to prison for either 25 years or 60 years, he said, would not make the victim's family feel any better.